Better Late Than Never!!

After much anticipation my v-day secret pal package has arrived!

Normally when something takes AGES to get here I say it's come by dog sled but I think even a dog team would've gotten the package here faster.
I got: two lovely skeins of Knit Picks Imagination in "Lost Boys" , a cute paisley tin (I'm in the process of doing a paisley glass etched mug!!), stitch markers (awesome! I actually need some more!), an incredible skein of Manos silk blend <3 <3 and some tea (smells yummy! I'm going to have a cup after I write this post). yay!! Thank you!!!!

I was going to pair this post with my latest sewing creation but that's going to have to wait for another day - I'll tell you about it now though! I made the Mei Tai baby carrier from Sew Liberated. It only took a few hours and it turned out really well! The distinct lack of a baby and my helmet hair prevents me from taking a picture of it but I'll try to get one soon. I'm definitely going to make a few more - they'd be a great gift for all those people that seem to keep popping out babies!

Only two more nights of hockey left :-( I'm really sad, I've been having SO much fun. I even got two goals today (grand total 5!) and my skating is definitely improving. Hopefully Glen will come along next week and take some more pictures.


Temperature: -23C (feels like -31C)
Sunrise: 9:30am
Sunset: 8:39pm

Plans

So I don't think I really have anything exciting report (do I ever?). The second little sweater is coming along (started on the second sleeve) but has been put on hold for a top secret birthday project for Glen (his birthday is on the 22nd).

We booked tickets last week for a trip to BC & Alberta. We hadn't really planned for me to go as well but we found some cheap tickets flying through Whitehorse & Vancouver and couldn't really pass it up. My cousin is getting married in Alberta in July so we were trying to figure out how we could make it down for that as well as there being time for me to go to GNAF (which is the weekend after). So instead of just going down for the wedding we're going to spend a week-ish in Victoria with my Aunt, Uncle and other cousin (it's her brother that's getting married) and then we're going to somehow make it out to Alberta for the 4th of July and then make it BACK to Vancouver to fly on the 7th. I'm SO excited to get back to Victoria (probably the only place in Canada where I could see myself living) but there's a crappy part to all of this... Glen's visa runs out at the end of July... It's silly to fly him all the way back to Inuvik for 2 or 3 weeks so he's going to fly back home when I fly back to Inuvik (his flight leaves 3 hours after mine in Vancouver). [insert me crying at the drop of a hat for the last week HERE].
So all of that means kicking my visa preparation into overdrive. And I can't believe I'm saying this but we're SO close to being ready. I'm getting some documents notarised tomorrow and then all we need to do is wait for a few more pictures to come in the mail and then that's it! We're of course going to scour the site and make sure we have everything before we send it off... We both finished writing all the letters we needed to (hello 2000+ word essay about how we met and our life together for the last 3 years) which has been my least favourite part so far (I don't like writing formal letters) but at least it's done! Before we send everything off I'm going to take a picture of the giant stack of papers - there's easily over 200 pages to this thing.

And the only other news I have to report is that this is post 90 and in 10 more I'm seriously going to be holding a blogiversary party (not like the last time I said I was going to and then got too busy to plan one). I don't think there's going to be any sort of skill testing questions involved but I'll have a draw for prizes.


Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:42am
Sunset: 8:28pm

edited sunset time.. The website had it wrong and the sun clearly set after 8pm tonight (love it!!)

I Guess We Don't Open Our Curtains That Often...

Look what I found yesterday when I opened the curtains:

Yikes!

Where did THAT come from? And how come we didn't notice it a looooooong time ago?! I don't think something like that grows overnight - it would've had to be a few days - or at least a week! And we thought the one we had last year was massive...

Today's my first day at my new-old job. I had 5 days off (3 for the craft fair and my regular 2) and managed to get A LOT done. I took pretty much everything out of the packrat room and am trying to get it to be a more functional room rather than a room stuff gets tossed when we can't put it away... I should've taken a before picture but it was embarrassing (think NO floor space and things piled everywhere -- when we showed a friend that room she said "you can call one of the community groups and they could come and take all that stuff to the dump for you" haha :-( Its not all garbage just... stuff... We are clearly living in too small an apartment for my things...). Anyway, there's floor space now and things are a bit more organized but there's a long way to go. Our main hallway is cleaned out too and as soon as the livingroom is done I'll put our tree up (for the livingroom to be clean all the stuff has to be moved into the hall where the tree is going). Progress though!

I had hockey lastnight and it was fun minus the fact I think I'm getting a cold so it turned out to be pretty hardcore... I felt OK before I started and when I got home I was pretty exhausted and miserable... Almost got a few goals - it means I'm at least getting the puck and getting a chance to shoot!


Temperature: -29C (whaaaaaaaaat?!?!)
Sunrise: 1:03om
Sunset: 2:24pm
(only 3 days left!)

Easter Egg Dying Experiment

It's the that time of year - the time of year you can get Easter egg dyes and cheap! Today I went out to the drugstore (the only store in town that I know carried the kits) and bought 20 kits. The girls at the store gave me a funny look when I told them what I was using the dye for ("What? That'll work?" was their reply). Even at a discount the kits were more expensive than they could've been but they came out to almost the price of two packets of kool aid (and you get 6 pellets!).

I had some Elann Peruvian Highland wool in white that I decided to use (I ordered some KnitPicks bare a few days ago). The kits came with blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and green. The purple doesn't really turn out purple unless you add a bit of the pink to it and then it turns a really nice shade (if you add pink to the blue, it turns a really dark bluey-purple). All in all, I think my little experiment turned out really good. The colours are a lot different than how kool aid turns out (I think the colours are a lot more vivid).

Here are the results:

Number one is my favourite and number four is my least favourite. When I was dying #4 I thought I grabbed a pink pellet but it was orange. I don't think I can really over dye it since orange doesn't really go with anything (I keep forgetting and putting orange next to purple - yuck!!!). Anyone like orange and blue?

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:29am
Sunset: 9:32pm

Guinness & a Hat!

Finally got a bit of knitting done! I have 3 "work" projects on the go right now. I started a baby blanket for Glen's sister but I've been really dizzy lately and looking at it was making my dizziness (& nausea!) worse. So I decided to knit up a few hats since they're quick and are hopefully something I can knit without feeling too sick.

Pattern: No pattern, cast on 92 stitches and went from there
Needles: 4.0, 16" circ
Yarn: Kool-Aid dyed Classic Elite Attitude. I don't know how much of the colour is going to stay since it's cotton & silk. It seems the silk really picked the colour up so it's like a muted colour with bright sort of streaks in it. The colour started to spiral but then stopped a few inches in (I think because I attempted to change to stst and then had to rip it back. My gauge must have changed).
Notes: The hat is a little short so who ever gets it will have to have a small head or not care if the hat doesn't cover all of their ears.

And in other news, I tried my first Guinness tonight. I'm NOT a beer person but I really liked the Guinness. It has a more mellow taste and it's not fizzy (I think part of the reason I don't like beer is because it's too fizzy). I couldn't drink a whole can of it (no pub here to have a proper one) but I think I'd be able to in the future.

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:37am
Sunset: 9:24pm

Well, I think we're getting to the home stretch of the Santa. At least it feels that way since I have 4 (!!) days off and I'm hoping to finish it by Wednesday. I'm working on the hat right now and after that it's only embellishment stuff to go.
I signed up for knitty's SP10 and I'm super excited. I've somehow missed out on a tonne of them. I think the last one I was in was SP4 (maybe 5?). I guess I forget about that section of the forum sometimes. Now that there's an increase of places to buy knitting stuff (and other fun things) online it's going to make it a whole lot easier and less stressful trying to think of stuff to send. I've actually already started ordering a few things that I think might be fun.

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 12:41
Sunset: 2:43